Livin' The Dream...

So I'm finally flying.

On August 25, 2006, a date which will live in infamy, I flew a plane for the first time from takeoff to landing. With my instructor in the right hand seat, we took off from Grand Forks, flew over to a practice area near Crookston, did an aerodynamics demonstration, and then started practicing landings at the Crookston airport. My first landing was pretty rough, my second landing was better, and on my third landing I "greased it in". Then flew back to Grand Forks, and landed. Not very eventful, but very exciting.

Today I flew again, and we practiced slips and crosswind landings, which I had a hell of a time with. We flew to practice area Golf, which is near the town of Northwood, where we were going to practice the landings. For alot of the small airports around Grand Forks, planes aren't required to use radios, or even have them. As we were doing our overflight of the Northwood airport, to check the windsock and look for other traffic in the pattern, I noticed a small red aircraft taking off. We tried to contact him on the radio, but couldn't get ahold of him. Then, as we were making a turn to the south, we both lost track of him, and decided to just fly back to Grand Forks to practice landings. I was doing so bad with one of my approaches that we had to do a go-around, which wasn't a huge deal, and we needed to practice them anyways.

Then we did our final landing, taxied to parking, and shutdown. I felt pretty sick after the flight, mainly due to the fact that I was dehydrated and hungry, and the plane was hot as hell today.

So yeah, I'm finally flying, and hopefully by the end of the year I'll have my Private Pilot's License.

Plane+Snakes+Samuel L. Jackson= The Best Movie Going Experience I've Had In My Life

So yeah, Snakes on a Plane. I give it nine thumbs up.

Really, the movie is bad. It's over the top. However, they went so over the top, and did it so damn well, that it's good. The other thing that saves it is Sam Jackson. Like Die Hard With A Vengeance, or Pulp Fiction, without him, the movie would suck. I would highly, HIGHLY reccomend you go spend the eight bucks and go see this movie in the theater.

P.S.:
If anybody gets my rating reference above, congrats, you are also a huge geek.

Back To School...

The Ol' Toll Bridge...

A week or two ago, as I was driving past the K.O.D. on my way home from delivering my papers, I thought to myself, "I wonder if the old toll bridge is still down there?" So the next day, I went down there and sure enough, it was still there...

The road down to the toll bridge, with the horribly vandalized old toll shack.
The bridge. Built in 1895 by the Pittsburgh Bridge Company, the bridge is a double-deck through truss swing span design, with a width of 18 feet, a clearance below of 19 feet, and a total span of 1661 feet. It was operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad until 1980, when the railroad went out of business. After being closed for two and a half years, a group from Chicago bought the bridge, naming it the JAR bridge. In 1999, the Army Corps Of Engineers disceovered a bad beam during an inspection, and demanded it be replaced, at an estimated cost of 11 million dollars. The owners could not afford this, so the bridge was simply abandoned. In the early 2000's, due to not paying property taxes, the bridge passed into Washington County ownership. The county plans to demolish the bridge, but wont until the estimated 2 million dollars needed are found.
Looking down the bridge towards St. Paul Park.
The center span of the bridge. It is now left open to allow barge traffic to pass.
"St. Paul Park Bridge Willie's Hidden Harbor Marina"
"Straight Ahead Left Bank 1/3 Mile"
"Full Service Gas Ice Bar Restaurant"
The operators shack. One of my dad's friends used to have a job operating the bridge, and he let my dad operate it a few times. He said it was pretty damn cool.
Looking back towards Inver Grove.
If you enlarge this picture, you'll see that there are two abandoned houseboats on that island.
This piece of graffiti makes me laugh.
I have no idea what this thing is. It's not actually connected to anything. My guess is that it's some part involve in the rotating of the bridge that was just dumped here.
An interesting old building down by the K.O.D. This is actually the old IGH town hall. While I was looking at the building, Tony, a former Knowlan's co-worker and now trash collector for the city came up and talked to me for while. He said that they were going to be tearing this building down, but a document I just found on the IGH website said that the city council was reccomending $35,000 to fix this building and another.
Saw this truck coming from the K.O.D.

An Idea...

Two quotes I've heard recently have given me an idea for a project, a project which I am going to call the Robert Street Project.

First, let me give you the quotes. On my dad's birthday, July 12th, the family was driving from the Glockenspiel to Culver's for dessert, when my brother said, having just learned that a Culver's had gone in on Robert Street, said "ah, the ever-changing chameleon that is Robert Street". I don't know why, but for some reason that has stuck with me. Then a few nights ago, while driving with my dad and sister, shopping for pretzel sticks, a special ice cube tray, motor oil and an oil filter, my father said "This street has changed so much. I don't even remember what some of these places used to be". Again, for no apparent reason, it stuck with me.

Then this morning, while waiting at the depot for the newspaper truck to arrive, it hit me. I want to document the stores on Robert Street right now, in between 494 and Butler. I want to take pictures of every business on Robert Street, write down what they used to be, if I can remember them, and post them to a series of blogs, each dedicated to a certain section of Robert. I'll try and spread the word, and get people to visit, take a look, and if they know what a building used to be, to leave a comment about it.

Crazy? Yeah, probably. But I want to do it, and I don't know why.